Blame Gravity

Chapter 18

After a long day of sightseeing, we get back to the hotel, and neither of us is really tired. We shower and then just lay on the bed for a few minutes when James suddenly gets up and starts looking for something in his bag.

"What are you looking for?" I whisper, turning my head toward him. 

He looks up and smiles. "Do you know how to play chess?"

"Of course I do!" Did he just assume I couldn't play chess?! What an insult! "Why?"

He pulls a chess set out of his bag and smiles again. "This is why."

I sit up and settle closer to him. "You brought a whole ass chess set?"

"Yes."

"Why the fuck...?"

He shrugs. "There's a Magnus Carlsen game I wanted to  study, but I  guess we could play."

"Hell yes, we could!" I sit down on the floor, opposite him. "Just prepare to be fucking obliterated."

He smirks. "I'm prepared, Canmore, don't worry."

"Oh, I'm absolutely sure of that." We finish setting up the board.

"Black or white?" he asks.

"Black, I guess." We turn the board around and he starts.

He moves his pawn to d4. I sigh and move my pawn to d5. He moves to c4. 

Queen's fucking Gambit.

I look up at him. "Kinda cliché, Miller."

He smiles. "I know, right? I wanted to see if you'd notice."

"Of course, I'd notice. I'm a fucking boss at chess."

He laughs and we continue playing. He uses a few quite interesting tricks, but I'm prepared for all of them, and quite quickly, we get to the endgame.

We play and play, and it's 4 AM when we finally get to a position where I am at a huge disadvantage, and the best choice would be to call it quits. 

"Draw, Canmore?" he asks, smiling.

I look at him and smile back. "Never." 

We continue playing, and I am very close to checkmate when he dodges my attack and knocks out my queen.

"Fuck," I whisper under my breath. I study the board and go over every possibility. I'm happy we don't have a chess clock, that'd make me terribly nervous. Finally, I sigh. Fuck. I can still get a draw out of this, maybe. I move with my bishop.

We play for another hour, and finally, only 4 pieces remain.

Yes. I can get a draw out of this. Or... 

I study the board. Yes. Only a draw. I then look at James' face. He looks... quite panicked, to be honest. He looks at me and swallows.

What happened? I study the board again. And that's when I notice it. He made a mistake. A small mistake that happened at the beginning of the game, that he probably thought wasn't going to matter. He wasted one round. One round that could have meant it all.

In two moves I get a checkmate, and I look at him triumphantly. 

"Damn it, Canmore," he mutters and looks at me, seeming quite impressed. We shake hands. "You were really good, y'know?"

"And you were terrible. You wasted an entire fucking round on moving with a pawn."

"Yes, well, I thought I'd have you wound up in ten moves."

"You underestimated me, as always."

"I don't underestimate you, Canmore. Ever.  I am perfectly aware of how intelligent you are, and I admire you for it."

With that, he stands up and slumps down on the bed. "Somehow, I'm still not tired," he whispers.

"Me neither." I lay down next to him. We just lay like that for the next few minutes. Suddenly, he speaks.

"If you see someone rob an Apple Store, does that make you an iWitness?"

"Get the fuck out," I groan and I smack him on the head with a pillow. He keeps giggling in the annoying way only he can and I can't help but smile. We stay silent for a while. 

"Okay, so olive oil is made from olives, right?" he asks.

"Yes," I frown, not understanding where he's going with this. 

"So then baby oil-"

"STOP IT, MILLER!" I yell and I am about to slap him when he catches my hand.

"Want to try that again, Canmore?" he asks in a rough voice. 

I hate that I find that kind of hot and I pull my hand away. What kind of fucking degenerate am I?

We stay quiet for a while. 

When I'm about to fall asleep, I hear a terribly loud phone ring. James groans and stumbles over to his bag. He picks up the phone and gestures me to be quiet. 

"Hey, Maud." I notice he's trying to sound tired and I'm trying my best not to laugh. "No, it's fine, it's only 4 AM. Nah, it's fine. Really. " He yawns and it's impossible to hold back now. He looks at me and smiles lightly while telling me off with his hand gestures, which only makes me laugh more. "Yeah, I'm doing great. But hey, you should sleep, you know? It's unhealthy to stay up this late." It stays dead quiet for a moment and I see him swallow nervously. "No,  you don't have to worry about that. You know I'd never..." I hear Maud shouting loudly from the other end but I can't make out her words. "No, it's okay. Really. Okay, yes. Good night. Sleep well!" He puts down the phone and sighs.

I burst out laughing. "What was she shouting about?"

He looks at me and sighs again. He isn't smiling now. "She's worried you and me will, uh..." 

Realization dawns but I try to ignore it. "...fight?"

"No. Fuck." He slumps down on the bed. "I'm an awful person." 

"I mean, so am I."

"You don't understand. Maud is way out of my league and I do not at all deserve her. She's way too kind. And then I fucking cheat on her."

"Maud is not out of your league," I frown.  "Quite the opposite, actually," I whisper, tired.

It stays quiet for a while, and I quickly fall asleep.